There is an exquisiteness of moral sensibility, making one to gush out tears of delight, and a poetical strangeness in all the improbable circumstances of this wild play, which are unlike any thing in the dramas which Massinger wrote alone. The pathos is of a subtler edge. Middleton and Rowley, who assisted in this play, had both of them finer geniuses than their associate.1

THE TRAGEDY OF PHILIP CHABOT, ADMIRAL OF FRANCE [PUBLISHED 1639: LICENSED 1635]. BY GEORGE CHAPMAN [1559 ?-1634] AND JAMES SHIRLEY [1596-1666]

The Admiral is accused of treason, a criminal process is instituted against him, and his faithful servant Allegre is put on the rack to make him discover: his innocence is at length established by the confession of his enemies; but the disgrace of having been suspected for a traitor by his royal Master, sinks so deep into him, that he falls into a mortal sickness.

ADMIRAL. ALLEGRE, supported between two. Adm. Welcome my injured servant: what a misery Have they made on thee!

Al. Though some change appear

Upon my body, whose severe affliction

Hath brought it thus to be sustain❜d by others,

My heart is still the same in faith to you,

Not broken with their rage.

Adm. Alas poor man.

Were all my joys essential, and so mighty,
As the affected world believes I taste,
This object were enough t' unsweeten all.
Though, in thy absence, I had suffering,
And felt within me a strong sympathy,
While for my sake their cruelty did vex
And fright thy nerves with horror of thy sense,
Yet in this spectacle I apprehend

More grief, than all my imagination

Could let before into me. Didst not curse me
Upon the torture?

Al. Good my lord, let not

The thought of what I suffer'd dwell upon

Your memory; they could not punish more

1[For other extracts from Middleton see note on p. 144; for Rowley see note on p. 126.]

Than what my duty did oblige to bear

For youand justice: but there's something in
Your looks presents more fear, than all the malice
Of my tormentors could affect my soul with.
That paleness, and the other forms you wear,
Would well become a guilty admiral, one
Lost to his hopes and honour, not the man
Upon whose life the fury of injustice,

Arm❜d with fierce lightning and the power of thunder,
Can make no breach. I was not rack'd till now.

There's more death in that falling eye, than all

Rage ever yet brought forth. What accident, sir, can blast, Can be so black and fatal, to distract

The calm, the triumph, that should sit upon

Your noble brow: misfortune could have no

Time to conspire with fate, since you were rescued

By the great arm of Providence; nor can

Those garlands, that now grow about your forehead,
With all the poison of the world be blasted.

Adm. Allegre, thou dost bear thy wounds upon thee
In wide and spacious characters, but in

The volume of my sadness thou dost want

An

eye to read. An open force hath torn

Thy manly sinews, which some time may cure.
The engine is not seen that wounds thy master;
Past all the remedy of art, or time,

The flatteries of court, of fame, or honours.
Thus in the summer a tall flourishing tree,
Transplanted by strong hand, with all her leaves
And blooming pride upon her, makes a show
Of spring, tempting the eye with wanton blossoms:
But not the sun with all her amorous smiles,
The dews of morning, or the tears of night,
Can root her fibres in the earth again;

Or make her bosom kind, to growth and bearing:
But the tree withers; and those very beams,

That once were natural warmth to her soft verdure,
Dry up her sap, and shoot a fever through

The bark and rind, till she becomes a burden

To that which gave her life: so Chabot, Chabot——.
Al. Wander in apprehension! I must

Suspect your health indeed.

Adm. No, no, thou shalt not

Be troubled: I but stirr'd thee with a moral,

VOL. IV.-24

That's empty; contains nothing. I am well:

See, I can walk; poor man, thou hast not strength yet.

[Act v., Sc. 3.]

The father of the Admiral makes known the condition his son is in to the king.

FATHER. KING.

King. Say, how is my admiral ?

The truth upon thy life.

Fath. To secure his, I would

you had.

King. Ha! who durst oppose him?

Fath. One that hath power enough, hath practis'd on him,

And made his great heart stoop.

King. I will revenge it

With crushing, crushing that rebellious power

To nothing. Name him.

Fath. He was his friend.

King. What mischief hath engender'd

New storms?

Fath. "Tis the old tempest.

King. Did not we

Appease all horrors that look'd wild upon him?

Fath. You drest his wounds, I must confess, but made
No cure; they bleed afresh: pardon me, sir;
Although your conscience have closed too soon,
He is in danger, and doth want new surgery:
Though he be right in fame, and your opinion,
He thinks you were unkind.

King. Alas, poor Chabot:

Doth that afflict him?

Fath. So much, though he strive

With most resolv'd and adamantine nerves,

As ever human fire in flesh and blood

Forg'd for example, to bear all; so killing

The arrows that you shot were (still, your pardon)
No centaur's blood could rankle so.

King. If this

Be all, I'll cure him. Kings retain

More balsam in their soul, than hurt in anger.

Fath. Far short, sir; with one breath they uncreate :

And kings, with only words, more wounds can make
Than all their kingdom made in balm can heal.

"Tis dangerous to play too wild a descant

On numerous virtue; though it become princes

[Shirley's Works, ed. Dyce, vol. vi., 1833.]

To assure their adventures made in every thing.
Goodness, confin'd within poor flesh and blood,
Hath but a queazy and still sickly state;
A musical hand should only play on her,
Fluent as air, yet every touch command.

King. No more :

Commend us to the admiral, and say

The king will visit him, and bring health.

Fath. I will not doubt that blessing, and shall move Nimbly with this command.

The King visits the Admiral.

[Act v., Sc. 1.]

KING. ADMIRAL. His wife, and father.

King. No ceremonial knees:

Give me thy heart, my dear, my honest Chabot ;
And yet in vain I challenge that; 'tis here
Already in my own, and shall be cherish'd
With care of my best life: no violence
Shall ravish it from my possession;
Not those distempers that infirm my blood
And spirits, shall betray it to a fear:
When time and nature join to dispossess
My body of a cold and languishing breath;
No stroke in all my arteries, but silence

In every faculty; yet dissect me then,

And in my heart the world shall read thee living;
And, by the virtue of thy name writ there,

That part of me shall never putrify,

When I am lost in all my other dust.

Adm. You too much honour your poor servant, sir; My heart despairs so rich a monument,

But when it dies

King. I wo'not hear a sound

Of any thing that trenched upon death.

hitherto

He speaks the funeral of my crown, that prophesies
So unkind a fate: we'll live and die together.
And by that duty, which hath taught you
All loyal and just services, I charge thee,
Preserve thy heart for me, and thy reward,
Which now shall crown thy merits.

Adm. I have found

A glorious harvest in your favour, sir ;
And by this overflow of royal grace,

All

my deserts are shadows and fly from me:

I have not in the wealth of my desires
Enough to pay you now--

King. Express it in some joy then.
Adm. I will strive

To shew that pious gratitude to you, but――
King. But what?

Adm. My frame hath lately, sir, been ta'en a pieces,
And but now put together; the least force

Of mirth will shake and unjoint all my reason.
Your patience, royal sir.

King. I'll have no patience,

If thou forget the courage of a man.
Adm. My strength would flatter me.
King. Physicians,

Now I begin to fear his apprehension.

Why how is Chabot's spirit fall'n ? 2

Adm. Who would not wish to live to serve your goodness?

Stand from me. You betray me with your fears.

The plummets may fall off that hang upon

My heart, they were but thoughts at first; or if
They weigh me down to death, let not my eyes
Close with another object than the king.3
King. In a prince

What a swift executioner is a frown,
Especially of great and noble souls!
How is it with my Philip?

Adm. I must beg

One other boon.

King. Upon condition

My Chabot will collect his scatter'd spirits,
And be himself again, he shall divide

My kingdom with me.

Adm. I observe

A fierce and killing wrath engender'd in you;

For my sake, as you wish me strength to serve you,
Forgive your chancellor; let not the story

Of Philip Chabot, read hereafter, draw

A tear from any family; I beseech
Your royal mercy on his life, and free
Remission of all seizure upon his state.
I have no comfort else.

King. Endeavour

[Forty and a half lines omitted.]
[Twelve lines.]

2[Three lines.]

Chabot's accuser.